The Student Insurgent Issue 26.1 "The Asshole Issue"

Dearest Reader,

You’ve been told to remain silent your whole life, sitting on the edge of your
seat in every history lesson. Your entire youth was institutionalized and
ruled by fear.

Fear of careers, religions and rejection, fear of wars,
destruction and your asshole boss (fuck you, Randy). You’ve just about bitten
your tongue off holding it back all these years.

You’re fed up with what you see being done to your

fellow humans, your planet and your creative potential. You can’t be silent
anymore... “Bullshit! (insert rant of your choice)” you shout out of nowhere.
You pour out your rage to get the same bleak response time after time: “Why
don’t you shut up and stop being such an asshole about it. Nothing will ever
change.”

Don’t buy it.

Like many asshole radicals, I subscribe to the slogan that your thoughts and
words are powerful.

Now is your chance, so take a deep breath and let it all go. We are here to
listen. We accept you for being an asshole. Maybe if other assholes weren’t
such assholes you wouldn’t have to be such an asshole about it. Truth is we’re
all assholes. So here’s your chance to unleash your inner asshole. (but not
your outer asshole, we like to keep things respectable around here. )

Rage on,

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstractions...5 an
fan Asshole to huyself...7

Open letter to
Ann coutter...10

the Drunk Funk...13

Bed Eugs...15
Fuck #17

Elliot State Forest..18

Hear Asshole..1¢-20

Notes on Colonial atheism..25
Radical Classifiecis...30

Congratulations, you're

an asshole!
Salutatorians of Assholery
(AKA Contributors)

Sage Liskey, Augustine
Beard, Kelsey Rankin, Sam
Myers, Emma Ruddock,
Emma Boville, Sam Rush,
Tyler Torola, John Mon-
roe, Rand Gould, Maureen
Kane, Carlos Gil, Jesse
Ceballos

| or - Send content to:

URGENT

AL Nbstractions

As a homosexual growing up in the evangelical, Anglo-Protestant Church, much of my life has been greatly affected
by maps. From a very early age I learned the map of ‘homosexual’ drawn for me by my church, my parents, and my|

friends. Simultaneously, I was becoming slowly aware that my body was the actual ‘territory’ the map represented.

I began asking questions beyond my understanding; I can remember feeling profoundly afraid. At

that point, I felt it was easier and safer to accept their explanations than to struggle against them.

Consequently, I became obsessed with fixing myself. My map defined me as_ promiscuous; I
thus viewed myself as a sex addict. My map defined me as perverse; I interpreted my thoughts
as evil. My map defined me as psychologically ill; I devoted myself to prayer for healing. Days,

months, and years passed in this way. I was not changed and I attributed this to my own weakness.

I had abstracted myself, losing sight of all my other qualities.

My hands were the hands of a pervert rather than the hands of an artist and a writer. My eyes reflected my
“illness” rather than my hope. I made myself a territory that matched the map I had been taught; I lost myself.

Eventually, I came to understand that maps and territories are seldom the same. My sexuality is part of me,
but not the only part of me. Yes, I am gay, but I am also an optimist and an activist. I take really short show-
ers and like to sleep with the window open. I like poetry and wordplay, baking things and swimming in rivers.

Abstraction boils the complexity of a human into boxes and charters, and any sense of individuality disappears.

This understanding is the key to overcoming prejudice. Humans are all judged, abstracted, and boxed—
and nearly all of them would rather they weren’t. In understanding this process we see the problem with

stereotyping and mapping. We see how we have been mapped, and we see how we have mapped others.
The task is to visit the territory before creating a map and to understand that the complexity of humans

makes stereotyping useless. For almost a decade I allowed other people to tell me what I am. I worry how

many others allow themselves to fall into boxes, and how much of themselves they will lose as a result.

*The terms used in this (ex. maps and territories) are taken from Hayakawa’s Language in Thought and Action

An Asshole to bayself
Self-Care In Troubled Times ss

We live in the best and worst of times. The hope and cynicism that whirls around like a tornado hits us all in
great paradoxical gusts—and we reel between the worlds. Sometimes we have a mental health condition; sometimes bad
things happen; sometimes trauma replays itself; and sometimes we are just assholes unto ourselves. We can escape our
patterns though, because each moment there exists a capacity for change. After all, we are not stagnant creatures. Rather,
we are creatures with the ability to learn, grow, transform, and defeat the inner asshole. Here are some tools to help.

hiabit Reformation

According to Charles Duhigg, a habit has three parts to it, the “habit cues,” the habit itself, and a reward for performing the
habit (Gross. Habits). An example would be the smell of cookies (the habit cue) leading you to purchase and eat a cookie
(the habit) which in turn satisfies your sweet tooth (the reward). Habit cues include anything from sights and sounds to
smells and feelings. Once the habit has initiated, the brain actually automates the task and is free to think about other
thoughts and actions. Everyone forms habits at a different rate, though three weeks has become a popularized number for
people to strive for when attempting to embed a new habit (Layton). If one is performing the behavior regularly enough, it
should stay permanently wired within their neural make-

up after this amount of time (Delude). This is great for

healthy habits, but also makes breaking an unhealthy one

exceptionally difficult. Even if we do break a habit, being ~ YN

around old “habit cues” can quickly make the habit re-

form (Gross. Habits). This is especially challenging as the

rewards for a bad behavior are often more immediate than

the rewards for a good behavior. So how can you change

your behaviors? If attempting to form a habit, repeat it

often and at regular intervals, form one habit at a time,

make the rewards of the habit more visible, and do the

activity with a friend or pet (Layton). If you’re working on

deforming a habit, recognize the “habit cues” and rewards

for the habit, create a healthy habit that is triggered when A .

you are around a bad habit cue, remove yourself form the y Jory tne bein Such ay)

habit cue(s), go on a vacation, or put the habit just a little : | ;

further out of sight (Gross. Habits; Layton). To ee more ass hele Sometimes '
about habits, read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg,
or B.F. Skinner’s research work on “operant conditioning”

bainafulnes baecitation

Regular meditation improves mood and prevents depression (Paula). It is mostly effective by giving the brain a rest
from reiterating negative thoughts and feelings. There is no limit to what form meditation can take, but the primary
goal of many meditative practices is to focus on the present moment and not pass judgments on thoughts that may
arise. One of the greatest things that the practice teaches is that humans have an option to think or not to think,
and that it is okay and often healthy not to. An especially researched form of meditation is mindfulness medita-
tion. Mindfulness meditation gradually “[increases] activity on the left side of the prefrontal cortex, which is associ-
ated with joyful and serene emotions” (Meditation). The practice has been shown to decrease anxiety, increase brain
gray matter, and prevent age related memory loss (Lazar). Another benefit of practicing mindfulness is that it en-
hances our sensations. Removing judgments and focusing wholly on what is, sights become more beautiful, smells are
more aromatic, feelings are more sensual, food is more tasteful, and music sounds more pleasant. It is a sort of high

that with practice, can be maintained indefinitely and transforms the whole world into a new oasis to experience.

Mindfulness is a skill that takes time to develop, but there are many ways of practicing it anywhere and any-
time. These include things like maintaining awareness of the sensations of your body, of an action you are per-
forming, of a conversation, or of thoughts that arise, but the most common way of practicing mindfulness is
following your breath. Your breath is always with you, and so it is a reliable focal point. The more you prac-
tice being aware of your breath, the easier being aware of other sensations and aspects of your life will be.

Resources to learn mindfulness can be found at <http://www.mindful.org/mindfulness-practice>, in the writings of Thich
Nhat Hanh, and the book How To Train A Wild Elephant & Other Adventures in Mindfulness. More helpful however
is joining a meditation group or taking a class. Yoga and tai-chi are options that integrates stretching, movement, and
meditation together. Another option is joining a sangha, or community, that practice under the non-dogmatic teachings
of Thich Nhat Hanh and offer mindfulness meditation for free or donation prices. They practice a mixture of walking,
sitting, guided, listening, speaking, and eating meditation. For help finding a sangha near you, or starting a sangha, go to
<www.thichnhathanhfoundation.org>. There is also <wkup.org> for young-adult and youth-based sanghas. Yet another
option is Vippasana Meditation. Vippasana is a free and silent form of meditation where beginners are generally required
to complete a 10 day silent retreat before moving on in the discipline <www.dhamma.org>. Whichever course you take, at-
tending a retreat is very beneficial in creating a space where you fully focus on creating a habit of meditation. There are also
online podcasts, smart phone applications, and communities of people encouraging each other to find mindful awareness.

Communication Styles

Our style of communication can cause a lot of suffering or a lot of happiness. Everyone communicates differently depend-
ing on where they come from, and this creates a lot of conflict and confusion in the meaning of words and tonality. It is
common for people in the Pacific Northwest to be considered passive aggressive and sensitive, and in turn outsiders are
viewed as aggressive and insensitive in their humor and way of dealing with conflict. The most important thing to do when
communicating with others is to not judge and not make assumptions. Ask questions and when possible use nonviolent
communication (NVC) when dealing with conflicts. NVC was created by Marshall B. Rosenberg and teaches how to com-
municate with basic human needs in mind and in a way that avoids judging others. It opens people up to having discussions
rather than making them defensive or feeling terrible. Manfred Max-Neef believes that all humans have the same nine basic
needs (Nonviolent). Ask yourself if you or another person are sufficiently receiving all these needs. If not, then figure out
how these needs may be better met. Reworded into simpler terms by Marshall Rosenberg, these needs include sustenance,
safety, love, empathy, rest (recreation and play), community, creativity, autonomy (freedom), and meaning (purpose).

The basic technique of NVC is to observe what specifically is bothering you, state how that thing makes you feel (sad, an-
gry, frustrated, etc.), state your needs being unmet due to that thing, and then make a request that will result in your needs
being better fulfilled (Rosenberg). In this way it is possible to avoid judging a person while creating an open dialogue about
the conflict at hand. These are just the basics-NVC has much more to it, including techniques for expressing empathy and
gratitude externally and internally. To learn more about NVC, read the book, watch video tutorials, and attend workshops.

Abundance haentality

Think about the positive things as well as the possibilities of positive things in your life instead of what you do not
or cannot have. This is an “abundance mentality” (Edberg). If you always complain about a certain time of your life,
find good things that were happening then, or what good occurred because of that difficult time. You could also con-
sider every new moment of your life an exciting adventure. While it is difficult to alter learned behaviors, you have
the most power over how you feel, as well as the ability to deflect or reduce what you don’t want to feel. If you think
something will make you feel bad, then just as in a self-fulfilling prophecy, it will most certainly make you feel bad.
However, if you maintain an open mind to how an event will impact your emotions, or see the positive possibili-
ties available to you through such an event, the negative feelings will remain for much less time or not be there at all.

Do not confuse this with avoiding feelings-when regrets or tragedies do arise, you fully experience the pain
they cause, but then move forward and use them as an opportunity to learn and grow. By embracing an abun-

dance mentality you simply become much more tolerant toward changes, whether people cancel plans on you
or a horrible event happens in your life. Every moment is part of your personal story, you may as well work with it.

Train yourself to be more positive by writing a list of good things that happened today, this week, or month, express-
ing gratitude toward someone you appreciate, repeating one or two positive mantras, praying for or mentally forgive
people who have wronged you, using nonviolent communication to resolve conflicts, smiling, practicing mindfulness
meditation and living in the present moment, volunteering, or by accepting what you fear the most and sprouting hap-
piness there. Another option is reading Pronoia Is The Antidote For Paranoia by Rob Breszny. Pronoia is a wonder-
fully written, absurdly silly, and yet serious book that helps cultivate an abundance mentality. In one chapter Rob says
“Thousands of things go right for you every day, beginning the moment you wake up. Through some magic you don't
fully understand, you're still breathing and your heart is beating, even though you've been unconscious for many hours.
The air is a mix of gases that’s just right for your body’s needs, as it was before you fell asleep” (Brezsny 6). There are
literally hundreds of questions, thoughts, and poems to wake you up to how amazing you, the world, and universe are!

the tianpiest Choice

For a more comprehensive guide to cultivating
happiness and coping with depression, pre-order my book,
The Happiest Choice: Essential Tools For Everyone's
Brain Feelings at <wwwssageliskey.com>. Due out at the
beginning of 2015, The Happiest Choice is a comprehen-
sive and yet straight-to-the-point overview of techniques for
coping with depression and depressed feelings backed by
scientific research or my personal experiences. It includes
activities to do, thoughts to think, taking care of your body,
medicines to ingest, ways to communicate, and more. The book
is written for mothers, children, teenagers, adults, activists,
marginalized groups of people, country folk, city dwellers, the
religious and spiritual, the introvert and extrovert, and thealter-
native and mainstream minded. Whoever you are, you can be
certain to findsomethinghelpfulforyourself, friends,andfamily!

* jiiustrated By »
fey Janine Hesse 4

Brezsny, Rob. Pronoia. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009. Print.

Delude, Cathryn M. “Brain researchers explain why old habits die hard.” MIT News. 19 Oct 2005.

Edberg, Henrik. “How to Create an Abundance Mentality.” The Positivity Blog. 30 Jan. 2008.

Gross, Terry. “Habits: How They Form And How To Break Them.” NPR Fresh Air from WHYY. 5 Mar. 2012.

Layton, Julia. “Is it true that if you do anything for three weeks it will become a habit?” howstuffworks. No date.

Lazar, Sara. “The Science of Mindfulness and Meditation.’ University of Oregon, Willamette Hall, Room 110. Eugene, OR. 1 Nov. 2013. Symposium.
“Meditation In Psychotherapy. An Ancient Spiritual Practice Is Finding New Uses In The Treatment Of Mental Illness.” The Harvard Mental Health
Letter / From Harvard Medical School 21.10 (2005): 1-4. MEDLINE. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.

Nonviolent Communication Training Course. Dir. Marshall B. Rosenberg. The Center For Nonviolent Communication, 2010. Audio CD. CD #3
Paula Goolkasian, et al. “Effects Of Brief And Sham Mindfulness Meditation On Mood And Cardiovascular Variables.” Journal Of Alternative &
Complementary Medicine 16.8 (2010): 867-873. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

Rosenberg, Marshall. Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Compassion. Encinitas: Puddle Dancer Press, 2002. Print.

An Open Letter to Ann Coulter 0

The following is a guest post in the form of an open letter from Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Frank-
lin Stephens to Ann Coulter after this tweet during the Obama/ Romney Presidential debate.

Dear Ann Coulter,

Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren't dumb, and you aren't shallow. So why are you continually using a word like the R-
word as an insult?

I’m a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public’s perception that an intellectual disabil-
ity means that I am dumb and shallow. I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than

the rest of you. In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night.

I thought first of asking whether you meant to describe the President as someone who was bullied as a child by people
like you, but rose above it to find a way to succeed in life as many of my fellow Special Olympians have.

Then I wondered if you meant to describe him as someone who has to struggle to be thoughtful about everything he
says, as everyone else races from one snarkey sound bite to the next.

Finally, I wondered if you meant to degrade him as someone who is likely to receive bad health care, live in low grade
housing with very little income and still manages to see life as a wonderful gift.

Because, Ms. Coulter, that is who we are - and much, much more.

After I saw your tweet, I realized you just wanted to belittle the President by linking him to people like me. You as-
sumed that people would understand and accept that being linked to someone like me is an insult and you assumed
you could get away with it and still appear on TV.

I have to wonder if you considered other hateful words but recoiled from the backlash.

Well, Ms. Coulter, you, and society, need to learn that being compared to people like me should be considered a badge
of honor.

No one overcomes more than we do and still loves life so much.

Come join us someday at Special Olympics.
See if you can walk away with your heart unchanged.

A friend you haven't made yet, anity GINEESILY
John Franklin Stephens

Global Messenger r e S D e C t
Special Olympics Virginia pledge now

ACN
friendship Re7
acceptance Special Olympics

Northern California
www.SONC.org

www.End TheR-Word.com

Art by Kelsey

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Let’s Talk About the Drunk Punk

(an excerpt from the Quiet Riot AKA Shy Sober Kid Zine)

Counterculture is rarely more hypocritical than when it deals with alcohol. Every punk is familiar with
images of the ‘punk-as-fuck’ (drunk-as-fuck) nihilistic dude rocking a spikey jacket, weeks of crust, and of
course a 400z. Maybe you have been that punk. I used to be that punk. Mosh pits, beer, dumpstered donuts,
no sleep. In a world of capitalist expectations turning out fit laborers ready for exploitation, what could re-
sist authority more than self-destruction?

Hold up. Since when is the destruction of me antithetical to the multifaceted systems of domination that I
was born into? If self-destruction is resistance, then it would follow that my continued well-being is society’s
top priority. That is clearly not the case. At best, capitalism wants me miserable and downtrodden enough
to do what is asked of me, but not quite so miserable and downtrodden that I am not capable of contributing
to the labor pool. At worst, the dominant power wants me dead because my transness and craziness pose a
threat to the system. In either case, real resistance is protecting myself against the system’s violence.

Countercultures, including but not limited to punk, have swallowed up drugs and alcohol as glamorous
forms of resistance. What we really swallowed up is a very effective ad campaign. It is just another way to
define ourselves by our consumer choices. In exchange for sending our money off to some truly fucked up
corporations and war zones, we get to look cool (that is, become a living part of the ad campaign for the next
generation of punks) and feel good (that is, make ourselves sick the next day and in the long term).

What I love about punk (and what I appreciate about other countercultures) is that we can define what is
cool based on the kinds of everyday resistance we want to see in our community. Punk harnesses the power
of our rage and marginal forms of survival, and then turns them into our cool. Something that we fucked

up along the way is what to do with the rage and survival strategies. Getting drunk and treating our bodies
badly is not saying fuck you to domination, it is saying fuck you to ourselves. Eating veggies and taking care
of ourselves is closer to a fuck you to domination - at least it keeps us healthier and functional so the rage
can go somewhere useful. Punk is ours and we can define it however we want: let’s define it as taking care of
ourselves so we can be more of a threat to domination.

Some things can be easier if you are a drunk punk. Maybe it is easier to stick around at shows, parties, even
protests because being drunk takes away the awkward and the nervous. Maybe it feels easier to survive and
give no fucks because being drunk takes away the fear and pressure. But the things that alcohol takes away,
though uncomfortable, can be useful to us. Feeling awkward can be a sign that we need something different.
I feel awkward at shows and parties more often since I stopped drinking, but that awkwardness has some-
thing to say. Maybe the place I am at is not actually a safe or welcoming space for me and I will have more
fun if I just find something else to do, maybe I should bike around to some dumpsters or work on a project
instead. Or maybe I will feel better if I buddy up with a supportive friend-and I might get closer to that friend
in the process.

Sober as fuck is punk as fuck!

“The ones who made that alcohol ain’t my friend,
but the sad part is I’ma probably do it again...
I used to have a things for Cognac,
But nowadays I train for combat.”
-Fucked Up by Dead Prez

The best way to treat bedbugs

y Sam Rush

The best way to treat bed bugs is
to scream uncontrollably until you die.

The best way is to move.

Get a camper van

one wrapped in plastic

brand new and three more for backup

park one in the heat and one in the cold and rotate them
while the others cook the rest of you.

Move fast enough to outrun them
they can't fly

don't let anything touch the ground
quickly

is probably the best way,

best way to cook bed bugs is house fire
best way to treat bed bugs is diatomaceous earth,

fairy dust powder of ancient sea creature diatom skeletons
that latch onto the damn things’ backs and suck the mois-
ture out of their itty, bitty, bed bug souls,

best way to kill bed bugs is to surround them in death
until they die.

Best way to treat bed bugs is existentialist deism.

Remember, we are all part of god’s hand face tooth or
colon and you are feeding the needed masses of his body
kingdom

all of them tiny feasting sucking pieces of god,

stop being so greedy with your blood.

Best remember when god is dead bed bugs make atheists
go crazy

covered sleeping in a crawling graveyard.

Best way is probably tea tree oil

best way on a broke back

best way for a dirt kid sleeping in odd spots living in truck
bed floor

where you got?

best way if you cant find nothing else cause if there’s one
thing every crunchy travelling truck back twenty-some-
thing has plenty of

(other than bed bugs)

It’s tea tree oil.

Tea tree oil is made from melaleuca trees.

When I grew up I watched melaleucas suck dry the ever-
glades outside my

3rd grade classroom window

while my 38 classmates and I swished pink wax-tasting
fluoride in our mouths

crowded around an egg timer set on 30 second count
down

with all of our mouths full and all of my mind big,

I could almost hear the slurping up through their roots
the great grand blue herons choking thirst up falling out of
the sky

Melaleuca trees were brought to south Florida

in the colonists’ pockets

wanted a strong drinking sucker tree to drain out the
swamp plaque and make way for their thick white

stucco bastions

One hundred years on the grass river is anemic drymouth
and the trees are just living their own damn lives
probably never knew they smelled like killing

best way to treat bed bugs (on a budget!) is to douse your-
self in tea tree oil three times a day

(this is also the best way to treat scabies, best not to think
about scabies,

best thing is you don’t have scabies...

you have bedbugs.)

The best way is with tea tree, see?

Every room you walk into will smell like minty pungent
accident destruction or hippie mouthwash

best way to kill bed bugs is to stink of survival
survival of the fittest

reproduction of the fittest

growth of the strongest fittest one

doing crunches on the floor

stop doing crunches on the floor

if you want to kill bedbugs!

Best way to treat bed bugs is to grow the fuck up!
clean your damn room!
look at the piles of filth, who, even on a good day,

posture unbelievably as genius
flamboyant

assinine

slurring excuses in a beer can echo

consider whether you have bed bugs or,

rather,

based on empirical evidence and habitat assessment
the bedbugs, in fact, have humans

think of the many squares whose tight assholes you
laughed at

when they designated clothes for bed wear only!

What the fuck are pajamas?

when they washed!

when they chose not to place their pursed face purses on
the floor! let nothing touch the floor

the floor is constructed entirely of tiny, tiny, sticky,
bed bug eggs

you cant see them, because they are your future and
you cant see the future

16

stupid human

human asshole

stupid, tasty human asshole,
that’s disgusting.

Tie your hair back!
bag your clothes up!
floss your teeth
wear sunscreen
clench your asshole!

Buy a polo shirt new not used from a sweatshop
sweat off the back of a blue heron nation

lift your feet up, damn it!

meditate on god

or death

and levitate

while you do

and don't let anything touch the ground
clench your asshole, asshole
this is how nature changes itself.

Art by Graham
Bedbug by Internet

Stages of poetic grieving:

I hate your stupid band.

Tragic poem, tragic sad poem, sad self-realiza-
Your band is a pleather tion poem,
self-realization angry poem, angry ironic poem,

ironic self-effacing poem, self-effacing humor-

Gucci bag

bought in Chinatown.
ous poem,

humorous humorous poem.

The music is a hijacked Kurt Vile, I do hope this falls somewhere in the latter half.
bred with knock-off Animal Collective,
ee es ane Anyway, in the spirit of emotional growth
like one of the leash children at the mall.

Foaming at the mouth.

(or something):

Non-dogmatic, Non-denomenational, Buddha-
like, Hypothetically and Dubiously existent
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I
cannot change:

What I hate most about your
stupid band

Your impossibly contoured skinny
is that I love your band.

jeans

The fact that everything appar-
ently and inevitably relates back to
Charles Mingus and Miles Davis,

despite my efforts to engage in a

I hate so much that I love it ,
That I actually pretend to love it

2

more than I love it,
less
so that when you see me dancing
at the show,

you will associate my exuberance

intellgesyal conversation with you

with undue levels of inebriation Art by Graham

instead of admiration That we will never again swim in Walden
the art of manipulation.

I am not exactly a natural.

The courage to change the things I can:
Wine, lots of wine.

Later that night, My policy on befriending men who simultane-

H. slapped me across the face.
No,no, it was really light and kind of affectionate,

ously wear paisley and plad

Wine, more wine.

because I had said his music playing silhouette
And the wisdom to know the difference.

was beautiful.

a oh |
Rade, COMPROMISE
= GH ‘ i

18

_ik — =? +

The Privatization(the clear-cutting of Assholes) in Oregon
Old Growth Forests: From the Elliott Campaign

Going on a drive through the Oregon coast range to arrive at a hiking trail or perhaps to see the ocean is one of the most
gorgeous routes that bless the North West and hell, the entire western side of the continent.

Sadly, as you drive through such beautiful and rare ancient forest, you can't help but notice the giant, brown, decimated hill-
sides that look like a foreshadowing scene of the apocalypse.

Unfortunately we have the assholes that make up Big Timber and the State to thank for the utter destruction of the last 3% of
Native Forest while also destroying watersheds and ecosystems that can never be replaced.

Especially when “healthy” forest management, to these money hungry assholes, means first a clear cut then planting a
monocrop of trees so close together that any diversity of plants and wildlife that once existed will never be able to return.

Oh, but here is where it gets even worse. Our friends in the State Land Board are tired of having to manage the beautiful
93,000-acre Elliott State Forest. Due to successful lawsuits, blockades and tree sits that have cost the state more money than
they can make off this ancient forest, they want to wipe their hands clean by potentially PRIVATIZING PUBLIC LAND.

Unless you are Weyerhaeuser (one of the largest private landowners of timberlands) this is bad, not to mention full of cor-
ruption. Once public forest land becomes private not only would it be illegal to recreate on this largely healthy untouched
forest in ways such as camping, hunting, and hiking, there would also no longer be public process or transparency regarding
the forest management.

Environmental protections and endangered species protections will get thrown out the window and local communities will
have to deal with the loss of an absolutely irreplaceable resource.

While the official public comment period will likely be over by the time this issue of The Student Insurgent reaches print,
I think there are many creative ways you can make your opposition of public land privatization and the decimation of old
growth forest heard.

And hell, it wouldn't even hurt to just give them a call and tell them what you think, if that’s all you have time for: 503-986-
5200. The State Land Board will be making a decision on the future of the Elliott State Forest on the 9th of December in
Salem.

Keep a watchful eye and for more info on the Elliott and other forest defense campaigns I heard these folks know what's up:
forestdefensenow.com.

long live the weeds and the wilderness yet,
an anonymous forest nerd

19

DEAR

As if being homeless wasn’t bad enough; as if living with the cruel uncertainty of how to afford basic health care wasn't
a horrible circumstance before; as if begging for food and money outside a grocery store with shelves stocked up
higher than you can reach wasn't already degrading, homelessness is also illegal in many cities across the US. In the
past three decades, there has been a strong trend of increasing criminalization of the homeless. There has been a 43%
increase in cities that ban sitting or lying down in public places and a 119% increase in the number of cities that ban
sleeping in vehicles in the past three years.

Dear Asshole;

With such strong restrictions, 74% of homeless people don't know of a safe and legal place to sleep. Rarely are these
actions accompanied with substantial support for the homeless. In Eugene, the homeless outnumber shelter beds 2:1.
In Los Angeles the ratio is as high as 4:1. In addition to a 25% increase of bans on begging in public in the past three
years, 17 cities have restricted private institutions and individuals from providing food to the homeless. If they are
unemployed and don't receive sufficient government support, it is effectively illegal for these people to eat. Not
only is it simply unethical to pass laws prohibiting eating and sleeping, it also makes no sense fiscally either.
A study conducted in Florida found that annually, a chronically homeless person costs taxpayers $31,065 on
average. Providing them housing, basic healthcare, and job training, however, costs only $10,051.

So to all the asshole mayors, asshole city council persons, asshole police chiefs, and asshole lobbyists pushing
through these asshole bills and enforcing the criminalization of the homeless, look at the facts. There are no
grounds, ethically or economically for your assholeness. And to all the homeless and concerned communit
members, don't put up with the assholocracy. Fight back.

Dear Asshole;

You stole my moped, you asshole. You stole the moped that has been in my family through three
generations now. You stole it right after I finished hauling it all the way from Kansas, and you
stole it without the gas tank installed on it. You’re an asshole, but even if you're able to empa-
thize with how shitty I feel to have this thing taken away from me, I don’t think you will have
fully grasped just how deep your assholery runs.

Perhaps allow me to pull back the cheeks and show you the light. I posit that you stealing m
families’ moped has driven humanity yet deeper into the mire of shitty consumerist society
where the only value that we as a people can put on the world around us is preceded by a
dollar sign and never backed up with real human connections.

I say your actions have made the world a little bit darker because this moped was a connection%~
to my families’ love for each other and all the beautiful moments we've had buzzing around the

rolling prairies of Kansas, and you destroyed that. You replaced it with an unusable machine, most *
likely chopped up and used for parts with no history, and likely no future as well. You’ve destroyed
priceless human connections and ae them with joyless dollars. But forget for a second about me,

is the precedent you wn for your own life. When you make it ok to cast aside love civil cherished memories for| .
heartless dollars, what are you really moving towards in life? Just a load of crap Id bet, but I guess thats
appropriate, asshole...

ASSHOLE

Dear Asshole,

It’s not just that you are a bro, in the douchiest sense of the term. No. What you are is a bro masquerading as a touchy-
feely, free-loving hippie—in short, you are a dishonest bro. And that, in my humble opinion, is the worst kind of bro.

Brocialism (n): A brocial and broconomic system characterized by brocial ownership of the means of broduction and
bro-operative management of the broconomy as well as a brolitical theory and movement that aims at the establishment

of such a system.

“Bill Clinton’s economic policies are capitalistic, but his Oval Office policy with brunettes defines brocialism.”

ave you ever seen that YouTube video, “Shit New Age Guys Say?” What I’m getting at here is that you are a tired cliché,
nd while you may have ‘wooed me (pun very much intended) with your wishy-washy tea tree oil ways, it’s all too clear
ow that you would choose balancing your Chi over anything concrete, and I am so fucking over your fluffy-brained
Ilshit.

You're this ever-grinning over-confident abstraction, reeking of some combination of Dr. Bronner’s and coconut oil,
a gluten-free vegan love affair when I know I deserve a big, fucking steak (you know, that grass-fed, local shit of
course). I might even have some kale on the side, but the point is, we can't all live inside a cliché. Some of us are
looking for some substance.

Also, asshole, believing in women’s equality doesn’t mean that you try to sleep with all women equally.
You can go shave your back now.

Sincerely, Your Reality Check

ear Asshole.

am an empowered woman. I can do things for myself and I enjoy the satisfaction of knowing
carry my own weight and independence. That does not mean you need to pay for me, carry
hings for me, or act like am weak because of my sex. I am strong and I am proud so stop
treating me like I’m less. There's a difference between Chivalry and Chauvanist. Get with it or
get out.

Regards, Another Asshole

assholes behind the college financial system,

Sorry my required documents aren't on time. My mom doesn't know how to do taxes,

she’s been a single unemployed mother of 5 her whole life, she’s got bigger fish to fry (literally big-
ger fish, sturgeon and shit). I just wanted to thank you for taking my financial aid away after being
the first of my 17 first cousins to go to college. Good thing my mom finally managed to open that
little ma and pop store too! No more livin’ off social security checks anymore, yessirree this is the big
time. Now we can definitely afford to all go to college and get the heck out of our piece of shit small
town. Small businesses are after all doing great right now. I reckon we'll never worry about money
gain; why we've recently crossed the poverty line by a whopping 2,000 dollars! Imagine those sav-
gs; fuck your financial aid. Worst case I’ll just get myself a loan. Only 6% unsubsidized interest

te, whatever that means. I don't need financial aid, whoever said you can’t jump classes overnight is
ing you a damn lie.

PS. I hope my sarcasm was painfully obvious. I hate you.

*y

Make More Than A Dent

iscussing world views and ideals with my conserva-
n, the following question was put forth: How do you
the world? I was asked this after scoffing at Stephen

his belief on how to best bring about social change. He
all one had to have faith in the upper classes to trickle down wealth
and social changing ideas through policy and example.

“How do YOU expect to change the world, realistically?”, he
asked.

I conceded that I was not idealistic/delusional enough to
believe one man could solve all the world’s problems. Especially in
this day and age of mass surveillance and instant communication, the
best of which is state-run, one cannot organize a revolution that could
cure all the destructive ways of society in one fell swoop; not over-
night or even in a lifetime.

Maybe such a far-reaching coup has never been possible, not
even a century and a half ago at the beginning of the industrial age.

“Okay, if you realize the futility of your beliefs, why do you
still hold onto them? Enjoy, without guilt, the luxury technology and
easy access affords you,’ Stephen said.

Treplied 1 only consider it futile to believe one man can cure
every problem in the world. I hold onto my anti-Imperialist-Consum-

SNAIL MAIL
TITERS & SUBMISSIONS

the dangers of GMO’s and the risks of fracking.

These things matter.

I know, because I used to be a meat-eating, wasteful, selfish
prick. I used to make fun of what I thought were pointless activist
activities, passing out fliers, abstaining from meat and rallying.

It took exposure, over and over again, to affect me. I had to repeatedly
see activists living the way they professed. Riding bikes while passing
out anti-fracking pamphlets, serving vegan chili at rodeos, wearing
clothes from renewable materials such as hemp.

[had to keep seeing these things I didn't think were normal,
till they became normal occurrences and I became curious.

Even after my values changed, I took a while to become ac-
tive and share my passion. A line in the book Time Must Have A Stop
by Aldous Huxley influenced this decision to delay my involvement.
“.. That there is only one corner of the universe you can be certain
of improving, and that’s your own self... You've got to be good before
you can do good...Helping with one hand and hurting with the other;
that’s what the ordinary reformer does.”

So I waited till I was practicing before I started to preach,
Hypocrisy and heavy-handedness will only serve to alienate those you
would wish to enlist for youreause:

The method that can make activists Out of anyone without
them realizing, is to share beauty.

Beauty you know and love firsthand, appreciation of beauty

What is truly vital, to all causes, is the next generation,

erist-capitalist ideals because I hold a very realistic belief that I can at
least put a dent in this sphere of social and environmental destruction
we have encased the Earth in.”

“And how so?” Stephen asked.

“One Way is by picking a cause and sticking with it long
enough to pass the torch to the next generation. Of course, if I found
the time; I would pick multiple causes, but being dedicated to at least
One is vital, [his is where our conversation ended that day, due to
calls of Chow! interrupting.

Pater that night, laying down and reviewing the conversation
intermally, T could not get one particular element of the dis-
cussion Out Ofmy mind. “The next generation.” Proficiency in knowl-
edge of a Cause is vital only for making change in that cause. What is
truly vital, to all causes, is that next Generation.

Some causes are too big to change in a lifetime, such as
reliance on fossil fuels and over indulgence in meats. These are too
ingrained in our way of life for immediate change to be expected.
Corporate evils are large problems as well, with no immediate solu-
tion. there is no romantic opportunity in our era for an over-zealous,
militant minded activist to go out and single-handedly destroy an
eco-enemy like Monsanto or Halliburton.

To quote Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, “The mark of
immaturity is wanting to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of
maturity is wanting to live humbly for a cause.”

Shooting loggers or hunting down corporate executives will
bring no change and will probably get you killed. One must be persis-
tent and steadfast, teaching others trough example and education.
Giving out info about veganism at festivals, informing people about

connects us all, from old to young. Walk your dog that you rescued
from a shelter, and tell people his story as they pet him.

Volunteer at afterschool programs, teaching kids the won-
ders of growing their own crops and flowers. Spark appreciation
through examples people can feel, taste and smell, not just see and
hear.

Don't expect flat pieces of paper and bullhorns to do all the
talking and convincing. Everyone should be shared with, but an em-
phasis must be made on the young. They are the ones who will carry
and pass on the torch after you and J are dust.

Teach children about the beauty of nature, in all its capacity,
the blue of the sky while flying a kite, the simple joys of caring for a
loving animal; the wonder of exploring a forest.

The next generation needs the opportunity to develop a
foundational appreciation of nature through their own experiences.
“T love these woods, because I used to come here with mom,’ Not just
“I care for the woods because it’s wrong not to.” Foundational and
principal appreciation is key.

Take every opportunity you have, to share some beauty.
Whether it be your siblings and children, Kids at an afterschool pro-
gram, or a kid you can act as a big brother or sister to, sharing beauty
is the greatest gift you can give to someone and to the lasting cause,

End.
Maybe with a little sharing we can crack this sphere...

-Carlos Nathaniel Gil

Greetings Student Insurgent,

it warms my unvarying soul to be holding your latest pu ion
(volume 25, issue 3) in my hand, big props to you all and Ido
agree we must meet injustice with radicalism and if history has proven
anything it is that the collective minds have always won so it is im-
perative that we continue to rebel onward in struggle and solidarity to
bring an end to this brutal and inhumane injustice where ever it exists.
My uninhibited lust to be liberated teases my imagination daily in the
most unexpected and titillating way.

As this passion rises so does my desires for a radically new
society and world through revolution where no power, dollar, or
system is bigger than the people. Where no more taxpayers dollars are
used to finance these hellholes that are quickly becoming known as
state sanctioned torture chambers that house hundreds of America’s
impoverished who are subjected to forceful and unjustifiable rape on
a daily basis; that is, raped of our dignity, our humanity, our very right
to live free of degradation and scathing criticism that is meant to re-
duce us to a culture of broken men - on my knees they want to see me,
impenetrable darkness I can't see myself a slave to such bigotry. Each
day I stand firm behind my strong resistance.

Wisely and with great care I have created a world that accom-
modates my solitude and strengthens my strength.

No man, no system has moral authority over my thoughts,
over my ideas, or my desires to remain entrenched in our revolt that is
quietly and peacefully underway here in PBSP-SHU.

As I read your publication I was fascinated by the many
stories of strength, courag ance. Some even brought about
a strange emotional a anection as they correspond
so well with my o us triggering my erotic

imagination from the swee
tion of liberation that pul
ness. Without commitme
here with the student insu
tracted struggles and it give
to introduce our brave and s«
for if we are genuinely passiona
hat Passion will electrify the
Irpose’ creates cohesion atni
ic change.
Iam drawn to this

to the bold and thrilling sensa-
e erection of my conscious-
ave depth in anything, and
ng communion in our pro-
al and intellectual pleasure
the revolutionary community,
our “purpose” then expressing
ovement and collective minds.
nt, accelerating and sometimes

environment and I do hope that you find it vai ioral
rel ered this line of communication because if knowledge is
then le alitarianism with informa-

jail or stay and wait for what seems
Which to choose? Get out! Sounds good.

And Justice For Al

Asa poor person fou 1ave NOTHING. Nobody will care
about you. The Law will target you and once they get you one time
you ll be labeled a criminal FOR LIFE. You'll be kept from finding a
decent job etc., the “justice” system will consider you an “undesirable,”
and it will do everything in their power to lock you up. Once the PO
lice get you, you will be thrown in jail and placed under an excessive
(and unconstitutional) bond, which you can't afford. You will not be
able to afford an attorney, so you will be stuck with a court appointed
“lawyer” who is friends with the prosecutor and works in the same
office with him.

Unlike rich people, poor people can't call friends or family for
help unless it’s a collect call on a monitored phone-line. Also the calls
are limited to only the city in which you are “detained”, or imprisoned.
As soon as you are brought into the jail you are strip searched and
all your belongings are taken away, including your wallet with your
phone numbers. The guards will not let you look at those numbers.

So if you don’t have every phone number memorized, then too bad.
While they deny you these basics they will act as if you are crazy if
you get frustrated with their senseless and irrational rules, they will
provoke you as much as possible. If you react they will try to get physi-
cal and if you try to defend yourself they will not hesitate to hurt you
and it’s not too much of an overstatement to say that they will, and do.
use taserguns on people for tar ctice. Of course, while they tre
detainees like this, the detair osedly constitutionally “inno-
cent until proven guilty in a court of law? But at that point the person
hasn't even got a court DATE! Muct een to trial, or proven guilty
of anything. I must ask how can tl

be no a this blatant
ke forever?

violation of Americans Constitutional rights? I'm not ioe sting: that
all detainees be released but I am advocating that they should NOT be
punished Not until they go to court and are convicted as the Consti-
tution REQUIRES!

Instead people are locked in a jail with rules that are exactly
the same as the state prison’s rules. So the poor person sits in jail
under an unconstitutionally excessive bond and is unconstionally
treated as guilty and punished without having been found guilty. Poor
inmates may wish to file a lawsuit but they can’t afford it. They can do
it in forma pauperis, or “as a poor person” but the $350 dollar charge
still is placed as a lien against that person. Bill Clinton brought in the
PLRA- Prisoner Litigatio Reform Act. This made the $350 dollar
charge mandatory.

they finally
‘ en and get
reject the plea “bargain” and go sit in jail for
f months or even years awaiting a trial date.

uch more promising to just take the ony way out and
get out of jail- even if you're not guilty.
wait for what seems ns like forever? Which to

get to court the

=H

nota a real threat when the
Sie take the plea (admit guilt) and we'll ie pes
. , we’ re going to throw you back

you're going to sit there for months, maybe a year(s) until we bring
you to trial- so what do you choose? That is called “duress,” and by law,
any pleading in court is no good if made while under duress or threat.
Plead guilty now or do hard time indefinitely! That is a threat! A rich
person doesn't have to worry about any of this. They can refuse the
plea bargain and go back home. They've made bail at the beginning

so the court can’t use jail to threaten them. That says a lot about how
“fair” and “equal” our court system is. How’s that for “justice for ALL”?

-Chris Hughes

Dear Insurgents:

Thanks for thinking of me and continuing to send me SI.
Although it appears I did not get issue No.1 for some reason.

I've been meaning to write for quite some time, even though
[ve not received any acknowledgement of my last two letters - 4/15/13
& 10/12/13 - or the essays and poetry submissions therein. That is why
Tm not including any submissions at this time and merely inquiring if
youd be interested in publishing a review of Simone de Beauvoir’s The
Second Sex (2009 English translation and the first since the ‘50’s) and/
Or am essay on the failure of nonviolence and other reformist patholo-
gies to bring about real change.

As for the three issues I did get, you may wish to note, Ac-
cess, or Access/Keefe, is a corporate monopoly that exploits prisoners
through the exclusive sale of inferior products and food. Running an
ad for them is akin to poisoning the community well. Don't take my
word for it, contact the Human Rights Defense Center (www.human-
rightsdefensecenter.org) or read Prison Legal News (info@prisonlegal-
news.org) or phone them (561-360-2523).

If you want to get useful information to prisoners, run an
ad for the Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC), PO Box 70447,
Oakland, CA, 94612 (510-893-4648) and advise prisoners to write
and request their free Prisoner Support Directory (24pp), which is
updated yearly. Also, prisoners should join their states CURE chapters
or national CURE issue chapters. Thus, it’s be cool if you run an ad for

Bakunin pointed out in God and the State (1871), “A boss in Heaven
is the best excuse for a boss on Earth, therefore if God really did exist,
it would be necessary to abolish him.” Having read the Bible, I would
add that based on God's requirement of child sacrifice, e.g., the Pass-
over, etc., were required to exterminate him if he really did exist.

Any thoughts? Peace Out, war in!

-Rand Gould

We Are Here To Dance Together

And dance we did, until the domestication project known as civiliza-
tion managed to tame us and remove most of the joy from our lives,
rendering us socially and sexually dysfunctional in the relatively short
period of 10 to 20 thousand years. Taking us from a veritable Pandora’s
Box of sexual paradigms to a rigidly scripted exercise in sexual neu-
rosis and dysfunction that dictates among other things, sex is only to
occur between a man and a woman and, by the way, don't enjoy it too
much. Goodbye wild, hello banal. In other words, no more dancing.

Due to our becoming an almost totally domesticated species, we

also seem to have become collectively ashamed of our natural sexual
impulses, our wild sexuality."Confused and frustrated, this collective
neurosis leads us to behave in Ways that take the joy out of sex and
life itself, making our learned sexual behavior the antithesis of a fully
realized life. Leading, in turn, to a sexual life of accommodation and
settling for less than our wild selves would normally demand:

This dysfunction is rooted in the patriarchal religions that dominate
our species. The sacred texts of every major religion reek with the
hatred and oppression of women and the glorification of war and mur-
der in the name of God or the Gods, from the Hindu and Buddhist
Mahabharata to the Jewish Torah, Christian Bible, and Islamic Quran.
Despite the layers of beautifully sounding platitudes plastered over

the top of these religious dung heaps, the stench remains and projects

Goodbye wild, hello banal.

the newly reactivated CURE LifeLong chapter, for lifers and long-term
prisoners, which offers membership, with a quarterly newsletter, for
$3.00. CURE LifeLong, 665 W. Willis St., Ste. B-1, Detroit, MI 58201-
1641. Email: CURELifeLong@gmail.com. N.b., I included contact in-
formation so you can verify all the foregoing info as genuine, bearing
in mind that many people tend to disinform or misinform under the
guise of information, especially when it concerns the prisoner ware-
housing system.

Case in point, why publish the semi-delusional ravings of the
self-anointed “minister” Babayafeu Iyapo-I? And not just once, but
twice! Clearly, one of the many driven insane in the SHUs, why not
publish the California prisoner hungerstrikers’ recognized spokes-
man? Do you not know who they are? I will gladly provide you their
names and contact information. Better than some bizarre christian
cult leader, who is not housed at Pelican Bay where the hungerstrike
leaders are housed. Besides, as anarchists are we not in the business of
abolishing God, as opposed to encouraging such delusional beliefs? As

itself into the unnatural and mediated spectacle that is the modern
world.

Is it any wonder then, that a 16-year-old girl, who passed out at a par-
ty, was stripped naked and raped by the stars of a high-school football
team in Steubenville, Ohio on August 11, 2012. Or, that a 23-year-old
female medical student as kidnapped, tortured, gang-raped, and left
for dead on the side of a road by a group of men on a bus near Delhi,
India, on December 16, 2012, before eventually dying of her injuries.
Who do you think is worse off? The girl who survived, and gets to
relive the nightmare for the rest of her life, or the woman who died?

It is our learned sexual behavior, not our wild sexual nature, that leads
to this nightmare of sexual dysfunction. What else could possibly
cause a man to become sexually excited, and maintain an erection,
while raping a terrified woman, young girl or child? One in three
women will be beaten or raped in their lifetime, while child rape and
molestation has become a veritable pandemic. Ultimately, we are all

responsible and it’ crucial we understand our wild selves, our natural
sexuality, therefore, each other, so as to end this nightmare.

Sexual intercourse has the potential to be the deepest and most
spiritual of connections between ourselves and others. Unfortunately,
our learned sexual behavior and its inhibitions infect our sexual
unions, which causes sexual frustration and the horror of the afore-
mentioned crimes. Crimes which are now occurring at an astonishing
rate throughout the world. Banality and dysfunction is all that can be
expected from sexual behavior that is learned from fairy tales, televi-
sion, porn, and in school locker-rooms. Banality and dysfunction,
which leads to the horror show of our sexual misbehavior as reported
so pruriently by the media.

As such, it’s hardly a surprise when a girl raised to look for her Prince

tilization of sexual behavior, with the resultant sexual dysfunction
pervading the world and, especially, America. Naturally, all this would
be avoided if we could go back in time and eliminate civilization and
its very ideas from the planet and our minds, respectively. Since this
isn’t going to happen, we can and must alter our sexual behavior so
that it becomes more natural and fulfilling, instead of unnatural and
disappointing. In the words of Raoul Vaneigem, “We have a world of
pleasure to win and nothing to lose but boredom?

This may be accomplished by allowing children to engage freely in
sexual play as they're growing up, without the threat of eternal damna-
tion to some imaginary Hell. Moreover, as our children come of age
we, both men and women, must engage them in a frank and honest
discussion about sex, its potential for both great pleasure and deep

Sexual intercourse has the potential to be the deepest and most spiritual of connections
between ourselves and others.

Charming is horrified when, instead, she’s confronted by a smirking
schoolboy looking to “score” - the “old in-out, in the words of Alex,
the protagonist in A Clockwork Orange. Likewise, the boy, expecting
a girl to dissolve into a paroxysm of orgasm upon the deliverance of
the “old in-out? is surprised to discover, if he ever does, that that kind
of sex just doesn’t mean much to the girl. Those with different sexual
orientations are likely to be similarly disappointed.

Unfortunately, these disappointments are masked by many sexual
partners, primarily women, willingness to accommodate the other. In
the case of women, this accommodation includes faking orgasms and
sexual satisfaction. Men, in turn, accommodate the woman, or man,
in their life by being less sexually demanding, usually seeking sexual
satisfaction elsewhere, and more demanding in other areas in an effort
to assert their patriarchal proclivity to dominate. In the end, societal
pressure to have a mate, and to marry, force both men and women to
settle for far less than their initial childhood expectations promised.

Thus, it seems clear that mediated sexual imagery lends to the infan-

connection with each other and nature - the very life-force of the plan-
et itself. This discussion should include details of sexual play, especially
foreplay. This way, our children’s learned behavior will not continue
the spirit-crushing disaster of dashed hopes, confusion and frustration
that has been endured by so many in the preceding generation.

Instead of sexual behavior learned via the media and in whispered
conversations, particularly, in school locker-rooms, where the partici-
pants equate sex with a game, replete with “scoring,” which leads to the
horrifying atrocities like those that occurred in Steubenville, Ohio, or
Delhi, India, let us all, every single being on this planet, learn to come
together and dance.

-Rand W. Gould & Maureen A. Kane

Notes on Colonial Atheism

by John Monroe

Sam Harris is advocating colonial atheism. His main argu-
ment is that in order to assess national security threats, we
have to take religious beliefs in and of themselves as pri-
mary causal factors of terrorist behaviors.

Despite the ongoing critique of his reduction of terrorist
violence to Islamic beliefs, Harris refuses to acknowledge
that social and political factors should be given superior
analytic weight to religious beliefs, going so far as to claim
that rather than a war on terrorism we are fighting a war
on Islam. He will not engage arguments that bring up the
history of Western interventions and particularly the role
of the CIA, DOD and State Department in Middle Eastern
affairs. Instead, he attacks a generic weak liberal stance
and then goes on to blithely affirm the worst of US policies. The implications of his stance is a kind
of ‘convert or die’ secularism.

But Harris makes the typical move of playing victim to the predicable onslaught of criticism
(much of which is admittedly hysterical and vague). | can only refer to the unedited exchange be-
tween Harris and Glenn Greenwald. Harris presents it as if it speaks obviously for his defense.

By arguing that we have to link beliefs to behavior and thereby determine who has dangerous
intentions, Harris helps to justify and reinforce the current American kill programs, whether carried
out by drones, special operations or bombardment. Using the idea of ‘signature strikes; these kill
programs regularly assassinate Muslims merely for being suspected of potentially being terrorists.
The concept of ‘patterns of life’ identifies particular behaviors that can justify lethal force. One such
pattern of life is‘young men congregating’ which, yes, has gotten many young Muslim men killed.

There is no requirement for proof linking the target to terrorist groups, nor proof of an inten-
tion to carry out a violent act. If Harris’ argument is carried into foreign policy, then believing funda-
mentalist (or potentially any strand of) Islam could be sufficient grounds for termination.

A good liberal, Harris takes Western technical and institutional systems as somehow totally distinct
from the capitalist system which has colonized the Middle East and the rest of the world. The latter
simply disappears, while the former are under attack. The main threat is a virulent irrational belief-
system which has infected Muslims. The following quotes are drawn from an article posted on the
website of the Rational Response Squad. They have a police badge emblem, and are uniting ‘activ-
ist atheists’:

“A cult of death is forming in the Muslim world — for reasons that are perfectly explicable in
terms of the Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad. The truth is that we are not fighting a “war
on terror.”

We are fighting a pestilential theology and a longing for paradise...
“In their analyses of U.S. and Israeli foreign policy, liberals can be relied on to overlook the most
basic moral distinctions. For instance, they ignore the fact that Muslims intentionally murder non-
combatants, while we and the Israelis (as a rule) seek to avoid doing so. Muslims routinely use
human shields, and this accounts for much of the collateral damage we and the Israelis cause; the
political discourse throughout much of the Muslim world, especially with respect to Jews, is explic-
itly and unabashedly genocidal...

“Unless liberals realize that there are tens of millions of people in the Muslim world who are
far scarier than Dick Cheney, they will be unable to protect civilization from its genuine enemies.”
“Head-in-the-sand liberals” http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/dec/1/20041201-
090801-2582r/#ixzz3G4cmnycl

Even recognizing the reactionary danger of terrorist organizations and fundamentalist Islam-
ic regimes, Harris is falsely positioning these groups as the most important enemy of the collective,
secular, liberal ‘we’ With this he passes off more fundamental antagonisms.

By presenting a‘hard-on-terror’ liberalism, Harris also continually obfuscates the possibility
of radical liberation politics. In‘Mired in a religious war; published by the Washington Times, Har-
ris explicitly avows the ‘war to better the life of the Iraqi people’ narrative. He also argues that the
war on terror is not about taking vengeance for 9/11, but preventing more terrorist attacks from
happening. This can be done by attacking those who intend to attack‘us’ For Harris, his allies and
followers, there is a fundamental schism between rational and irrational beliefs. Irrational religious
and political doctrines threatens liberal society from both without and within. It is ultimately the Is-
lamic threat that poses the gravest danger to the liberal world, and Harris goes so far as to say that
the American religious right and European fascist groups offer the most honest assessment of this
threat.

Of course this avoids the problem that a relatively small group of people in both sides of the
conflict are engaged in producing terrorism: on one side, militaries, intelligence agencies, corpo-
rate contractors, and on the other side, terrorist groups and small hegemonic families. Through
all of this, the nework of global capital is pervasive and continues to sink in its fangs. And as we
already know, it is only by building relations of solidarity and
support with emancipatory forces throughout the the-
ater of the War on Terror, while chal-
lenging militarism at home, that
terrorism can be ended. Sam Harris
represents one of the many ways
in which we are tempted to
forget this.

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Zin
(Formerly the Survival Center)

Providing opportunity, support, and space for students and the surrounding

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RYO AG AL

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Meetings evely Tuesday @ independent collectives who serve free vegan meals to others.
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5 SOLIDARITY ® Vv = Heuse Shows at
Cals Social Justice Feminism Bs Community OS =
EQUALITY FoR ALL? People Over Profit 2

“

a Ng RADICAL Activist Vegan a Safer Spac eWe owe ite,
CONSENSUS Sustainability Y P randems BIKES Music’ wight
Stude se

$ prigeds — 86S
| Respect compost _-]
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“‘g ~~
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5, ‘caeugenc.0f® ..
dey sor
* Housin g. Safer

Where do you see yourself?

Here at the SCA we share the responsibility of ownership
in order to maintain our houses.

We work together in cooperation to make an affordable,
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Thinking of each other, the future, and the earth, we value good
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